Unfortunate Sun Concert Preview & New Honest Work YouTube Videos!!

Today's SMS post mostly wraps up some unfinished business from a YouTube channel that was first featured here not too long ago, but leading off, here's one more hard rock concert preview for this weekend, so here's what you Yoopers should know!

We'll start by wrapping up this weekend's known local hard rock concert previews, and that means a trip south to Rudyard, Michigan, where newer local hard rock quartet Unfortunate Sun will return to Huck's Pub & Grill for one night only TOMORROW NIGHT! This will be the first stop for the Fake Chow successors at the former Joe's Bar since rocking their Halloween party three weeks ago, but there will still be a theme tomorrow, as the concert will be a "hunter's widow party". Basically, a hunter's widow is a spouse or significant other temporarily "widowed" when their partner goes on extended hunting trips, so this is essentially being marketed as a ladies night to coincide with the beginning of firearm deer hunting season in Michigan today. Of course, Unfortunate Sun aren't "widowing" anyone tomorrow, so they'll entertain with their nicely varied and performed covers, and hopefully there's a solid turnout!

Note that the official Facebook event page also refers to this as a "comeback celebration", but as three weeks isn't a huge turnaround to call something a "comeback", I don't know what Unfortunate Sun are referring to. Tomorrow's concert is a 21+ affair with no announced cover charge and an 8:00 PM start time. Visit the above links for more details, and for a preview, here's Unfortunate Sun live!

The rest of today's post concerns the other SMS-relevant videos from veteran Sault Ontario punk drummer Adam Sauve's YouTube channel that didn't fit into our last post covering his videos from his old bands Talk Shit and Nebraska Arms. The four newest (public) videos on the Skwunch channel are of his current band Honest Work, who are essentially Nebraska Arms with Rising Tide alum Sheldon Jaaskelainen on vocals & guitar in place of the late Guy Thiffault. Only really active on social media via TikTok and Instagram, Honest Work have played just two public concerts to date, and the first one was filmed for videos on Adam's channel! As you may recall, this band (also featuring guitarist Dave Prendergast and bassist Wayne Watkins) debuted when they opened for the one-off Fuller reunion at LopLops Lounge this past December, and three videos from that night were posted on Adam's channel, though all three of them publically exist elsewhere. 

One was cribbed from Jimmy Polnick's Facebook live-stream of their set, while the other two (of Honest Work playing their own "Dead Friends" and covering Nebraska Arms' "Lighthouses") were originally uploaded to Dave's YouTube channel last year. Adam only chose to upload part of the full content though, with Jimmy's full half hour live-stream still being on Facebook and Dave's channel featuring seven videos from that night. Also, Adam curiously chose to save them for his own channel via screen capturing a smartphone, not via a Facebook video downloader client, so they have in-app controls and buttons that appear in frame. All three videos have been acknowledged on the SMS in their original context, but I will embed Jimmy's copy of "Dead Friends" here because, for one reason or another, external embedding of his live-streams from the Fuller concert was quietly disallowed at some point in the past year.

To see Jimmy's full-set videos of Honest Work, Fuller, and The Gambit from this post-Christmas concert in 2023, click here! The visual quality isn't ideal given the vertical dimensions and Jimmy behind behind a lot of attendees, but he got some solid footage regardless, so check out "Dead Friends" below and more from Honest Work's live debut above!

We'll close today with the sole video of Honest Work on Adam's channel that I haven't seen publically elsewhere, which sees them playing "Dead Friends" at an apparent jam session. Uploaded in July, this video puts the camera at high vantage point, looking down at Sheldon, Dave, Wayne, and Adam, which is a unique visual, especially when they're placed where they are! A little cymbal-heavy in the audio mix, but this is a fun performance of a song clearly inspired by the loss of too many friends of theirs, so give it a watch below, and hopefully we hear more from Honest Work soon!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site this weekend! Thanks everyone!

Cross Dog & Half Past Concert Previews, Plus More Updates!!

In today's SMS post, we are finishing off this weekend's hard rock concert previews with two big downtown shows tomorrow night, along with updates from a prominent local band & a new live video with some familiar faces, so here's what you should know!

We'll pick up our weekend concert previews TOMORROW NIGHT, when Peterborough hardcore punk trio Cross Dog will return to the Soo for a special headlining concert in the basement of Discover The Canvas Studio at 317 Wellington Street West! Featuring ex-Fuller/Lion Ride/et al. bassist Mark Rand and his wife Tracy Ashenden on vocals, this will be Cross Dog's first local concert since their appearances at 2018 & 2019's Oh!No festivals in Leeburn, and their first public concert in Sault Ste. Marie proper since opening for The Dayglo Abortions at the former Roosevelt Hotel in 2013. Now, another homecoming for Mark should be a big deal, but be advised that as of 6:17 PM, their tour bus broke down outside of Sudbury, and they were waiting on a mechanic scheduled to fix it tomorrow morning. Hopefully things are repaired in short order so that tomorrow's local date goes off without a hitch, but we'll let you know if something changes!

Local openers will include online page-less indie punk quartet Honest Work (last seen when they debuted at Fuller's reunion concert in December) and new local hardcore quintet The Sault Side Squad (in their third public concert), so come early for these newer supergroups! Doors open for tomorrow's public festivities at 7:30 PM with admission of $15 through local openers and $20 at the door, and there is no stated age limit. It will be great to see Cross Dog's furious and no-guitar originals back in town tomorrow, let alone in the basement of a tattoo parlor, so visit the above links for more details, and here's Cross Dog live!

Lastly for known hard rock concerts this weekend, let's head to Soo Blaster, where local hard rock quartet Half Past will have their biggest headlining date since their comeback TOMORROW NIGHT! Metalheads may have last seen Half Past among the openers for Selias at the same venue two weeks ago, but this will see Half Past at the top of the bill, with their proficient modern hard rock covers sure to fill the big Soo Blaster stage tomorrow! They'll even be selling their own band t-shirts tomorrow, which is a neat sign for fans! Bullet Train frontman Cory Murchison (billed as "Cory Daniel" like when he opened for Fort Creek two years ago) will open with an acoustic set, so if you like the former Sense of Truth and Skeyes of Seven singer/guitarist's extensive local career, he should have a solid block of unplugged tunes to kick things off!

This ALL AGES concert takes place tomorrow night at 8:00 PM, and admission is $10 in advance at this link, at the venue, or through performers directly, though you will have to pay $12 at the door if you didn't get yours beforehand. Fans of modern hard rock won't want to miss out on all of the action at Soo Blaster tomorrow night, especially given the scope for Half Past, so visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and here they are live!

Also today, here's some updates on the aforementioned Fort Creek, so what is the southern hard rock band up to nowadays! After unveiling a new band logo in May (which you can now buy official t-shirts with it on), they spent much of the summer working behind the scenes, only posting optimistic teasers about future activity. On September 1st, they revealed on their Facebook page that they were "wrapping up final vocals on our first release", namely an acoustic version of a song named "One For The Road". No updates followed until October 1st, when Fort Creek announced the addition of former Role Models/PROV3RB5 drummer Phil Greco to their lineup, replacing the already departed Anthony Fabiano. The guys talked up his skill set and professionalism, and he is a solid drummer that would be an asset to a long-term band, so it'll be interesting to hear how he factors in! We may not hear him immediately on the acoustic version of "One For The Road", granted, but we'll let you know when their new songs surface.

Fort Creek also posted the new band photo above of Phil alongside Justin, Shane, and Bill standing outside of a truck, but it remains to be seen how they'll handle their bassist vacancy (Robin "Bones" Lee left along with Tony last year). It's been a long and often quiet year for Fort Creek, but hopefully these recent updates are a positive sign, so visit the above links for more from their camp!

We'll close with a new video from (former?) Wyld Stallyns frontman Rob Speers' solo acoustic concert at The Dive Gastro Pub this past Saturday! For the record, it was indoors, so clearly the "Patio Play" conceit is done for the season. Uploaded to The Dive's Facebook page, this is our first public video look at Rob's solo concerts since he began them in earnest, and while this isn't a hard rock or metal cover, I did want to mention it today because Rob's playing with most of Handsome Sandwich here! For this cover, he was joined by singer Taylor Emlaw, guitarist Jesse Cook (Rob's old Elements and Wyld Stallyns bandmate), and bassist Rafael Medina, while the guest hand drummer appears to be local classic rock/country singer/guitarist Jeremy Logan Newman. Handsome Speerwich (how's that for a hybrid name?) are seen in this 24 seconds long clip covering Marcy Playground's "Sex & Candy".

Never a song I loved, but this group cover exudes with good vibes in what we see, and it's fun seeing everyone jamming like this! Check it out below, and look for more acoustic concerts at The Dive to come this fall!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's Defunct Local Band Profile next! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS (Agnosticism & Cross Dog), Plus Selias Concert Opener Videos!!

For our first post of October 2024, we're looking at some videos from a big recent concert and a pair of LOCAL CONCERT ALERTS for later this month, so here's what you should know!

Peterborough hardcore punk trio Cross Dog will make their long awaited return to the Soo on Saturday, October 12th when they set up shop in the basement of Discover The Canvas Studio at 317 Wellington Street West! Yes, this show is taking place in a tattoo parlor's basement, which should lend itself to be an interesting locale! Featuring veteran local punk/metal bassist Mark Rand (last seen locally at last year's Fuller reunion concert) and his wife Tracy Ashenden on vocals, this will be Cross Dog's first local concert appearance since the final Oh!No festival in Leeburn in 2019, and their first public show in Sault Ste. Marie city limits since 2013. Either way, it's been way too long to hear Cross Dog's ferocious and guitar-devoid sound close to home, and hopefully everything goes swimmingly in the basement next Saturday! Local openers (both online page-less) include indie punk quartet Honest Work and new local metal supergroup The Sault Side Squad.

Honest Work united Nebraska Arms & Rising Tide alumni to debut at the aforementioned Fuller reunion concert, but have not been seen since despite their promising and experienced lineup. Meanwhile, The Sault Side Squad just opened for Selias at Soo Blaster and this is just their third public concert, and second in the Soo proper, so don't miss either group on the 12th! Doors open at 7:30 PM for this Thanksgiving long weekend concert, which has no stated age limit and $15 advance tickets (contact the local openers for details) and a $20 door charge. With or without Cross Dog, Mark doesn't return home for concerts too often, so hopefully there's a huge turnout next Saturday, and visit the above links for more details!

Next up, another online page-less (Instagram aside) punk act will return to the stage later this month, as folk punk solo project Agnosticism will return to The Distraction on Thursday, October 17th for a special mixed-genre event in their Stellar Door basement space! No word on why this show will be downstairs, for the record, but I believe it will be the first all-local show at The Stellar Door. On this night, the headliner will actually be Shane "DJ Seith" Erickson with his fan favourite blend of turntable mixes, while young local comedy rock band The Floor Between Us (led by 2022 Soo's Got Talent finalist Colin Gasparelli) will also be performing in a couple of weeks. Of course, Agnosticism is the solo project of prolific local punk guitartist/promoter Mikhal Muto, and will be making their first advertised public concert appearance since opening for the newly renamed The Haze upstairs at The Distraction in June, believe it or not.

It's good to see Mikhal break out his acoustic guitar again after a few months of focusing on electric band gigs and promotion, and it'll be interesting to see how this widely varying genre lineup goes over later this month! While it is on a work/school night for many, this show has an early 7:00 PM start time, it is ALL AGES, and admission is $10 or "pay what you can". Visit the official Facebook event page for more details on the action under The Distraction later this month!

Also, here's some fallout from Saturday night's Selias-headlined concert at Soo Blaster, starting with new local tech death metal band Bardo, who have finally clarified their lineup on their Facebook page! As previously known, frontman/Heavy North Entertainment promoter Tyler St. Amour is joined here by his brother Travis on drums and Christopher Neveau on guitar, reuniting three former bandmates in March Into Regression in the process. The second guitarist from their prior teaser videos is Christopher Brown, who I am not familiar with from prior local bands, but the lineup on their Facebook page actually lists him on bass now, and true to that, Tyler (who primarily played bass in prior local bands) appeared to just sing/growl on Saturday. Interestingly, the Facebook lineup also lists Danielle Roberts as a singer too, but in what capacity? The Them successors did post a live video from the Selias show onto their Facebook page, but she is nowhere to be found.

The 8 seconds-long video (cross-posted from Instagram) primarily focuses on Tyler growling while Travis drums, and is accompanied by post-production effects of the moon. I can confirm that Danielle was standing on the far right in a video shared on personal Facebook accounts, but she was not singing in that clip. My guess is that she's a backing/clean singer, but we await longer/more videos to verify this unless you were at Soo Blaster on Saturday. Regardless, the video is way too short and has unusual dimensions, but it's a promising glimpse of something brutal for metalheads, so check our Bardo briefly below!

Finally, here's a video from local hard rock quartet Half Past's set at the Selias concert, which sees them covering System Of A Down's "Toxicity"! Courtesy of their Facebook page, this fan-shot video sees the filmer head from the floor in front of the stage to beside the stage very early on, so prepare to see a lot of bassist Arthur Lacasse's back at this angle (frontman Jordan Rains is often obscured as a result). The audio is a little muffled, but the camera was definitely good quality, and this cover is strongly done across the board! Give it a watch below, and don't miss Half Past back at Soo Blaster as headliners on Saturday the 12th! Tickets are on sale at the venue, through band members, and at this link!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's "Where Are The New Albums?" post next! Thanks everyone!

Updates & Videos From Theatre Of Night, Convergence, And Honest Work!!

A bunch of notable YouTube videos have turned up in recent days, so let's focus on them and the stories that led to them in today's post, which includes a highlight video of a band's recent tour, a musician search and album uploads, and first, lots of details on a new local punk band! Here's what you should know on this Sunday night!

Remember how the surviving members of Nebraska Arms joined forces with Rising Tide alum Sheldon Jaaskelainen in a new local punk band named Honest Work at last month's Fuller reunion concert? Well, their online presence in their own accord is starting to crop up! The band has launched official pages on both TikTok and Instagram, though note that I've never listed bands in our links solely based on TikTok or Instagram because of how restrictive and photo/shortform video-focused they are. If you want to follow these "four dudes making tunes to beat that Northern Ontario gloom" until(?) they get a Facebook page or more elaborate online presence elsewhere, you know where to go! In his first YouTube channel uploads in 13 years, guitarist Dave Prendergast posted seven videos from their debut gig at LopLops Lounge there, and two of these were cross-posted (in edited & pillarboxed form) to TikTok, but we'll focus on the full YouTube copies here.

During their half-hour-long debut, Honest Work (not to be confused with Honest Job) were filmed by a representative covering Nirvana's "Aneurysm", Alkaline Trio's "Radio", Dead To Me's "Die In Los Angeles", and in a fitting tribute, Nebraska Arms' "Lighthouses" (R.I.P. Guy!). Their own originals were titled "Rock + Paper", "Dead Friends", and as embedded below, "Be Better". It wasn't 100% clear from Jimmy Polnick's live-stream of their set given the distant & vertical camera angle, but Sheldon is Honest Work's lead singer, with bassist Wayne Watkins (also frontman of The Northwest) handling backing vocals. I don't know if they opted to not revive the Nebraska Arms name out of respect to Guy/deference to Sheldon, but it's great seeing Wayne, Dave, and Adam back together on stage again in any form, and Sheldon does have good vocals to show off now that he's up front! Also, kudos to the filmer for shooting these videos horizontally and from a central front row placement for an optimal first look.

Honest Work definitely hew closer to Nebraska Arms than The Northwest, especially in terms of punk influence, which is something that The Northwest have seemingly been phasing out with time, so genre fans won't want to bypass this talented veteran foursome! Give their debut videos a watch above and below, and stay tuned for more from Honest Work!

Next up, let's head to Sault Michigan for our first video look at local classical metal band Theatre of Night's new lineup! Following their Christmas tour last month, the band uploaded the demo video embedded below to their YouTube channel on January 4th, giving fans who missed the live dates their first look at the band since Marquita & Luke Bernard replaced Rachel Mender and Scott Andringa on vocals & bass corurtesy of their Gun Lake Casino show in Wayland. Marquita has the vocal chops to fit right in with their existing metallized carols, and Luke's a solid bassist, so musically, fans don't have much to worry about! The biggest change otherwise is that (at least) this show had a live narrator between songs, namely Sandi Bernard (quite a family affair all of a sudden!), who played the character of "Mother Christmas" and provided backing vocals on some songs. Note that her attire is not unlike the Ghost of Christmas Present from A Christmas Carol.

The idea of Theatre of Night featuring two singers in concert is not new, as their first ever Christmas tour in 2017 had Rachel joined by Stacie McCarthy on co-lead vocals, but this is a distinct touch, and Marquita & Sandi doubled up well on "Silent Night" in the video! If you missed the "Reels" on their Facebook page featuring unembeddable highlights, you'll definitely want to watch this high quality footage from Red Wolf below, and hopefully there's more from last year's tour to come!

We'll close this post with the latest from local progressive metal duo Convergence, who are looking for what appears to be a permanent lead singer! While they did work with State of Misery alum Steve Rhodes as a session vocalist on "Stratus", the band posted this "Shorts" video on their YouTube channel on Friday to plug the search for a vocalist who is capable of fry/false chord screaming, clean vocals, and songwriting. If you're interested in trying out for the former Kraken Mara, message them above and they'll send you a demo instrumental track so you can show what you've got! In the meantime, Convergence have uploaded both of their EPs (last year's "One" and this month's "Dead & Dreaming") to their YouTube channel, as single video uploads and broken up into individual songs, so whatever your preference, you can stream both for free there now. "Dead & Dreaming" is embedded below in full, but see above for more music from Brendan & Jake, and look for our review of the "One" EP in April!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes, plus this month's CD review, in the coming days! Thanks everyone!

Fuller Concert Video Showcase!!

I apologize for the delay in this making the site, but remember the Fuller reunion show at LopLops Lounge on December 28th? Well, almost the whole thing was live-streamed on Facebook! The Facebook event page (something usually forgotten about after a concert begins) ended up being a hub for videos from the event, possibly aided by the fact that 2/3rds of the bands that night don't have Facebook pages (and the one that does only posts there on occasion). These still made the rounds on personal Facebook pages, hence the comments/views on each. The videos were shot live by concert co-promoter Jimmy Polnick, and just to get this out of the way now, yes, all were shot vertically. I wish they weren't, but kudos to Jimmy for getting this much footage at all! We'll start with the 66 minute video of the reunited emo/punk trio Fuller, featuring founding frontman Jamie Vincent, late-era bassist Mark Rand, and guest(?) drummer David Peredun, who was heavily thanked during the set.

The set proper begins after six minutes of setup, with Jimmy talking to viewers watching on Facebook in the lead-up. Song names are partially sourced from a picture shared on Mark's personal Facebook page of him writing out the setlists used on stage on the 28th, though the name of the last song was obscured by Mark's arm, and I know that some were credited under short-form names. Also, as far as I know, none of these songs come from Fuller's 2002 EP, which Mark did not play on, and which infamously had no titled songs. I have yet to review it for the SMS, but I know that it was relatively softer than they eventually got. In order, their setlist led off with original songs labelled as "Batts", "And I End", and "Crush", before covering "Honestly?" by the Midwest emo band American Football. Further songs included "Image" and "Love Is Always", whose full name I know thanks to this YouTube video from back in the day.

Free Beer/Id Iota alum Dustin Goodall and Honest Work's Wayne Watkins take the stage next to do guest vocals on a cover of Moneen's "The Passing Of America", and the set ends with songs labelled as "Embarrass", "Kerosene", and the one whose name is obscured in Mark's image, which was more of an extended jam. While I was never a massive emo fan, Fuller turned in a fun set here with lots of energy, and it was nice seeing Jamie and Mark singing on stage together again! Jimmy did leave his prime spot in the front row for the last few songs, but you get a good look at the sold-out crowd as a result, and the recording quality is solid (vertical camera aside). Give Fuller's return set a watch below!

The middle band was local punk supergroup The Gambit in their first public concert set in exactly one year and just their second under this name. Jimmy's 40 minute live stream begins relatively promptly with the set proper. I'm admittedly struggling to identify all the songs on offer, which was a problem when trying to catalogue old Sick Sons/Gambit videos, partially due to vocal clarity with this audio setup and partially due to the band not introducing all songs by name. That said,  I am 100% positive that they covered NOFX's "It's My Job To Keep Punk Rock Elite", Gob's "I Hear You Calling", and Pup's version of Grandaddy's "A.M. 180", plus original songs named (I think) "Lonelier Tomorrow", "Lucky Seven", "Depth", "Clickbait", and "Faultline". In practice, fans can expect some solid indie-inflected punk covers and originals from The Gambit, complete with multiple band members taking vocal duties, and the variety is definitely welcomed!

Jimmy is stationed further from the stage in a stationary spot, and you can only see three band members with any frequency, but The Gambit's set was entertaining, and hopefully the original compositions are a good sign! Hopefully they ramp up their online presence too, and credit the full lineup by name on social media, but check out The Gambit's full LopLops set last month out for yourselves below!

Finally, the opening band (new and online page-less local punk quartet Honest Work) were joined in progress, with Jimmy's live-stream beginning late in their opening song, possibly an original named "Straight To My Heart". Honest Work (not to be confused with defunct indie rock band Honest Job) is basically the former Nebraska Arms with guitarist Wayne Watkins (also of The Northwest) now on lead vocals, and with bass now handled by former Rising Tide fiddler Sheldon Jaaskelainen, who also sings on some songs. Dedicating their half-hour set to fallen local musicians, their set otherwise included songs named (I think) "Left Friends" and "Be Better", among others, plus covers of Dead To Me's "Die In Los Angeles" and Alkaline Trio's "Radio". Entertaining set that restores some of the punk that has been phased out of newer Northwest material, and Wayne and Sheldon handle vocals well, so give their debut a watch!

With the Facebook event page intentionally being used to host videos from the event, more have been uploaded that we will touch on in an upcoming post. Thanks again to Jimmy for filming everything last month, so definitely give these a look to see what you missed out on (or want to relive) from Fuller's first show in almost 20 years, and hopefully those teasers of more activity in the future do lead somewhere positive! That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site soon! Thanks everyone!

Fuller & 20 Musicians Of Christmas Concert Previews, Plus New Northwest Videos!!

With this year's New Year's Eve weekend being busy as ever, especially post-pandemic, we have to break our weekend concert previews into three posts! We'll start today with two upcoming shows at LopLops Lounge, then we'll look at Friday-Saturday nighters elsewhere, before capping things off with New Year's Eve shows proper, so there's a glimpse into the upcoming post timeline, and we also have a YouTube Channel Profile, this month's CD review, and our year-end recap post ahead, so expect some busy times at the SMS to end the year! Let's lead off with those LopLops previews, with some new live videos from there to cap things off with!

For punk and emo fans of the early-mid 2000s, the New Years weekend begins in style TOMORROW NIGHT when Fuller reunite at LopLops for their first public gig in at least seventeen years! On this night, Fuller will be represented by founding singer/guitarist Jamie Vincent (last seen with No Funeral) and late-era bassist Mark Rand (now of Barrie's Cross Dog), with Pointless/All The Tired Horses drummer David Peredun taking over for the absent (and also blonde) Nathan Sauve. It will be great to see Fuller back for the holidays, and hopefully the promise of their jam session teaser videos spill over into tomorrow's set! Local punk supergroup The Gambit (née The Sick Sons) will return to the stage for their second gig as a quintet and under their current name when they take the stage tomorrow, in their first live set in exactly one year. Good to see them back after way too long, and they should have a fun set in store for old school punk fans tomorrow!

The opening band tomorrow is the debuting Honest Work (not to be confused with the defunct Honest Job), who feature the surviving members of Nebraska Arms alongside Rising Tide alum Sheldon Jaaskelainen on guitar. It's not clear who's singing here (Wayne?) or if they will sound similar to Nebraska Arms, but it'd help if they launched an online page! Regardless, they'll be a talented lead-off to tomorrow's SOLD OUT and 19+ concert, which begins at 8:00 PM, though tickets were $20 when still available. This should be a great time for punk and emo fans, especially those around in the 2000s scene, so visit the official Facebook event page for more details, and here's Fuller live back in the day!

Next up, the holiday season program at LopLops ends on FRIDAY NIGHT when many familiar faces take part in the return of the 12 20 Musicians of Christmas! Since we first covered this special concert event on the site two weeks ago, when it was already inflated from the traditional 12 artists to 16, organizers have added four more local musicians to inflate this event to its biggest state yet! As you may recall, The 12 Musicians of Christmas was a holiday season-tradition at LopLops from 2005-2018, where musicians were (at least at the time) given three song sets where they were joined by assorted other participants for some tantalizing one-off supergroups throughout the night. How that format will look with an extra eight people involved is to be determined, but with this performer roster, you won't want to miss out! Unlike in the earlier installments, there are a number of punk and hard rock alumni performing, so who can you expect?

Fans of Dustin Jones & The Rising Tide will be curious to check this out, as Dustin, Mikey Hawdon, Liam Seymour, Chris Johns, and new addition Marshall Jaaskelainen (good to see him back in town!) will all be taking part. No word on if we'll get a mini-Tide reunion or not, but don't bypass their involvement! Readers will also recognize Treble Charger/Pointless guitarist Bill Priddle, Wyld Stallyns saxophonist Josh Norling, and ex-Generations guitarist Brandon Ruch among the roster of performers on Friday. The other twelve Musicians of Christmas are Frank Deresti, Al Wood, Lindsay Pugh, Cliff Alloy, Shannon Moan, Juliana Regan, Hannah Lindsay, Andree-Ann Dechesne, Chris Belsito, and new additions Gabrielle Dumas, Craig West, and Vince Feletti. That is a stacked lineup of local talent covering a wide range of styles, so it'll be very interesting to see who plays what and with whom!

This special concert begins at 7:00 PM on Friday, it has a 19+ age limit, and admission is $50 at the door or in advance (+ processing fees & taxes) at this link. Yes, it's a pricey event, but that is on par with past installments, and look at the value you're getting. While the 20 Musicians of Christmas are gathering four days after the fact, it'll be a big night for fans of local music to see this much talent together for the holidays, so visit the official Facebook event page for more details! Given the nature of the event, I'll forgo a preview video, as everyone is advertised on an equal playing field and it'd be tough to find one video to sum up 20 people!

We'll close today by staying at LopLops, where Honest Work's Wayne Watkins performed on Friday with his primary current indie/punk band The Northwest! Attendee Christopher Paci filmed three videos of their set from their 10th anniversary concert for his excellent YouTube channel, and for the record, I do not believe that Far From Fine (who were advertised as opening in some personal Facebook plugs) played on Friday night after all. A reason for their apparent withdrawal wasn't publically announced, but be advised that the band never confirmed their involvement on social media (granted, The Northwest didn't even promote the show publically on Facebook). Hopefully we see Far From Fine in the new year! Chris filmed The Northwest covering The Who's "Baba O'Riley" and playing their own originals "Unsober October" and, as embedded below, "Walls".

In a nice touch, Chris shot each Northwest video from a slightly different angle, and while I chose "Walls" to embed because of its length, it was also shot from the most central locale of the three. It's also one of The Northwest's punkier originals, and the guys sound good and lively across all three videos, though be advised of very purple lighting for most of the combined runtime. Give these a watch above & below!

That's all for now, but stay tuned for non-LopLops concert previews next! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Fuller) Plus New Videos!!

I hope all of our Canadian readers are having a happy Thanksgiving! On this holiday, we have a new news post to check out featuring new videos from two different acts, and leading off, a surprising LOCAL CONCERT ALERT that many fans of the punk scene from 20+ years ago will be amped to check out. Here's what you should know!

Defunct local indie/emo punk band Fuller will return to the stage for one night only on Thursday, December 28th at LopLops Lounge! This will be Fuller's first concert since 2005 or 2006, entirely predating this blog's existence, but they were a quite memorable band in their mid-2000s heyday that played at a number of high profile concerts and released a debut EP (which curiously did not have any titles for the songs). It's not 100% clear what lineup will represent Fuller in two months, but frontman Jamie Vincent (ex-AlgomA/Bad Back) and bassist Mark Rand (Cross Dog/ex-Lion Ride) are definitely credited in Facebook tags for this event. You can check out videos from Fuller's original run on ex-(?)drummer Nathan Sauve's YouTube channel, and their indie punk stylings will definitely be welcomed back to the stage over the holiday season! Also note that Fuller have launched an Instagram page.

Sparingly seen local punk supergroup The Gambit (née The Sick Sons) will return to the stage for their first concert in exactly one year, having opened for The Northwest on December 28th of last year in their first gig after renaming and expanding to a quintet (the band still has not identified the new second guitarist online, for the record). It'll be good to see The Gambit back after way too long, especially given their familiar lineup of local punk veterans! The other scheduled band is Honest Work (not to be confused with Honest Job), a new band featuring former Nebraska Arms bandmates Wayne Watkins, Dave Prendergast, and Adam Sauve. No word yet on if they have other band members, not helped by their apparent lack of an online page at press time, but fans of Nebraska Arms and/or Wayne's other bands like The Northwest will want to take notice of the up tempo punk surely to come! And of course, R.I.P. Guy.

This 19+ event has an advertised 8:00 PM start time, and an admission fee has not been announced as of this writing. An Eventbrite link will be made soon for online tickets, but there will be admission at the door on an apparently limited basis. If you're at all a fan of local punk rock from the 2000s, this will be a must-attend concert, both from the names taking the stage individually and from Fuller's reunion, which was not something I expected to learn yesterday! Visit the official Facebook event page for continuing details on what will be a huge night!

We'll close today with some new videos, starting with a new playthrough teaser video from local progressive metal duo Convergence's YouTube channel! Along with some re-posts of Facebook content (including now-embeddable copies of some earlier "Reels"), the completely new video is of guitarist Brendan Christie playing 61 seconds of a promisingly heavy new original song named "Cancer", which is notable for featuring an uncredited vocalist! They had teased working on a session basis with former State of Misery/Valentine's Day Massacre singer Steve Rhodes, and while I cannot 100% confirm if this is him on this track, the vocal style is reminiscent of how he sounds with his current Southern Ontario deathcore band Prosector. The full song has not yet surfaced, but the former Kraken Mara continue to tweak their studio material on their website?

The guys have opted to move "The Ebb" off of their debut EP "One" and onto an apparent new release with unique cover artwork, but it's either self-titled or untitled yet. It joins another new instrumental song named "Glass Statues", but it's not listed as being on sale yet. "The Ebb" was a belated addition to "One" anyway, so clearly the guys changed their mind about tacking it onto the existing EP (which we review on the site later this month), but we'll let you know as things get clarified further. Also, "Glass Statues" is a very solid track for prog metal fans, and perfectly on board with their other material too! Give Convergence's current and newest material a watch/listen above & below!

Finally for today, here's a new video from former Skeyes of Seven/Sense of Truth frontman Cory Murchison's YouTube channel! Posted last month in his first performance video since the winter, it's a cover of Oliver Anthony's "Rich Men North of Richmond", which has become something of a flashpoint in recent months over its lyrical content. I won't get into any of that here, and while I think Cory's voice works better on rock songs than acoustic country, it's a well performed cover that fans of the original will take to. Give it a look below, and look for more from Cory in due course!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes on the site soon! Thanks everyone!